This is the story of Boylan of Hilltown. Boylan was a gentleman farmer and he had a beautiful residence and well stocked land. He loved his farm better than anything on this earth. When he was dying he ordered his workers to bring all his livestock past his bedroom window so that he could see them. Looking out at them he said "Hilltown, Hilltown how can I leave you. Heaven is nice but Hilltown is nicer". He died but his ghost remained in Hilltown. At last the Parish Priest

In a district named Hilltown, which

Irish men, along with thousands of work men, women and children.
Captain Boylan got very sick and had Doctor and Priest who attended him. The Doctor said he had failure. A Priest in the name of Fr. Mathews attended him. Captain Boylan said to Fr. Mathews, "How will I leave Hilltown, Heaven is not as nice as Hilltown".
Fr. Mathews said, "Captain, Captain why do you say that. Take your thoughts off Hilltown. Hilltown will fade away, but Heaven will last. On the Day of Boylan's death, Fr. Mathews was with him. Fr Mathews said, "Keep your thoughts on Heaven and not on Hilltown".
Boylan said, "Bring all my flock around my window, that I may see them all and say good bye to my flock and to all who is working here".
His command was obeyed.
They raised him up and he looked at them all and said, "Hilltown, Hilltown how will I leave

"Hilltown, Hilltown, how can I leave you". at last he said, I will not come back if you build a shed in the garden which I may go into". So they built a shed and put him into it. Hilltown house has never known to be haunted since.

the search, and after seven years the mother found out where the only daughter was.
Webb put up in Ardee. He had some money as he got seven shillings for the fine sifter and five shilling for the coarse one. An old woman that used to beg her share came into this house in Ardee one day. The woman of the house (Webbs housekeeper) put her sitting at the fire and gave her a bit to eat. When she was leaving she looked into the end room, and there she saw the Mac Dowell lassie and she knew her well as she often stayed a week in Hilltown. How are you Biddy and and how is Hilltown and me mother, said Miss Dowell.
So Webb kept her for a week and sent her back to Hilltown to tell her mother and she set off to get a car or lift, anyway but to get to Hilltown quickly as she had got plenty of pocket. Biddy was to tell noyone only the mother. When she got to Hilltown to the mother the mother was very glad. She rested Biddy for a week and and set her off again for Ardee to the daughter with four hundred pounds.
Anyway all the sons died and the mother brought Webb and daughter to Hilltown and gave them all. So they held

There is in the locality in which I live a large estate owned at present by Capt. E. Boylan and it was formerly owned by his father Capt. Boylan.
Now this old man was very fond of his property, which is called Hilltown and when he was drawing near the end of his life, the priest was summoned to his bedside. His bed was placed in such a position in his room that he could see his lands, and he would say "Hilltown, Hilltown how shall I leave you." The priest consoled him by telling him he was going to heaven, but he replied "I prefer Hilltown to Heaven" and he thus died.
After some days it is said his spirit began to roam through the house and moans and groans were heard by the occupants. The family asked the priest to pray the Ghost out of the house. He did so and he died one week after. The room in the house is now closed and the spirit is silenced in a Greenhouse some distance from the dwelling house. He is still said to be there.

Hilltown is a district to the north of Carpenterstown in the parish of Fore. There are about fifteen families in this townland. There are about fifty people. Farrelly is the family name most common. There are five thatched houses, five labourers cottages and five slated farm houses. Hilltown house (a very large house) is inhabited by Mr. Webb. There are three old people over seventy living in this district. They do no know any Irish. Their names are Michael and Mrs Farrelly. Joseph Galligan. Their addresses are Hilltown, Castlepollard, Co Westmeath. They may know the history of their district but for certain reasons refuse to give any information.An old man named Owen Keegan who died in 1935 told me that about 150 years ago there was a battle fought some place near Hilltown house between catholics and protestants. Most of the Catholics were put to death and that in a place called the sandhill (in one of the fields) there are several human bones. He said he often heard that when people were taking sand out of this pit they dug up several skulls. The people who were killed in the battle were buried there he said.

There once lived an old army officer named Captain Boylan. He had a beautiful Mansion surrounded by big grounds in Hilltown about five miles from Drogheda.
It is said that when Captain Boylan was dying his last words were, "O Hilltown, Hilltown, How can I leave you. Heaven is nice but Hilltown is nicer".
When Captain Boylan was dead his ghost was seen opening and closing the gates for the men with the carts coming in. Then he would go into the stables and see that the men would feed and put the horses up.
At last the men were so terrified that none of them would do their work. So a priest was sent for and he said a small hut should be built. When it was made the priest said some prayers and cast Captain Boylan's spirit into it.
The hut to this day is to be seen in the wood a short distance from the Mansion.

6. One time a man died in his gentleman’s house. The man’s name was W. Boylan, and he was from Hilltown, Bellewstown, and he loved the place. When he was dying he said he would like Hilltown better than Heaven. And then he died in sin. When he was dead the people in the house would hear noise every night. They sent for the Curate that also

Hilltown (Hilltown estate or house) was once Mac Dowell's a bad lot. There were eleven sons and one daughter in it. The sons were all wild and most of them died young.
That time there were no sieves in mills and they had sifters a fine and a coarse one to sift the meal.
A sifter maker named Webb came along and put up in HIlltown because there were a lot of young ash in it, and Mac Dowells gave him lodging in a barn. He got in with this lady and after a while made away with her. So there was a hunt with the brothers looking for Webb to shoot him, but they gave up

down for quite a long time which shows it to be very deep. The cave was shut up and was not opened since.
Long ago there was a very rich man named Boylan who lived at Hilltown and he had a very big farm of land and also a dairy and it was a lovely place and is still to the present day. He was getting very old and he knew he was going to die but he did not like to die. This evening he told all this worksmen to bring all his horses and cattle and drive them past his window for him to see them before he died. That night when he was dying he said to his friends "O Hilltown, O Hilltown how can I leave you Heaven is nice but Hilltown is nicer." The funeral was a few days after and when his cofin was put in the hearse the horses would not move so the priest said prayers and it moved off and after he dying he was often seen in the form of a ghost by neighbours arund there.
Once upon a time there was a catholic burial-ground near Monasterboice and there was a prodestant buried in it near the wall and the wall jumped over the grae and left it outside the wall.
About twenty years ago there was a man dying in the night time near Clonmellon. He sent for the priest of Kilskyre. The priest used to keep a servant boy and a horse and trap so the priest was coming to aid the sick man. They were coming to a certain bridge and all of a sudden the horse stopped and would not go any farther. Seeing

A member of the Boylan family in Hilltown was very attached to his mansion and place and he was frequent heard saying "The Glories of heaven were nothing to the Glories of Hilltown." When he died he kept haunting the house and no servants would not stop in the place. The members of his family, approached a priest who was a great friend of theirs. The priest ordered them to build a house at the lower end of the flower Garden. When the hut was finished the priest came and prayed for hours. After this the Ghost never came near the mansion but was seen each night to enter the house in the Garden. The priest by his prayers removed him out there. The priest himself died in three days.

There are people living at Hilltown House beside Bellewstown Racecourse. When their Grandfather

lived there he loved the place. When he knew he was dying he raved about leaving the place his last words were "Oh Hilltown how can I leave you." When everything was ready for the funeral and the Hearse ready to leave the Hall door the horses refused to move nor could any one make them go.
When everything failed they had to take the coffin out and when they did the horses moved off all right so they decided to bury him at Hilltown. So his wish was filled.

At the time of the Invincibles there was a meeting held in this locality and it was decided to raid Hilltown House for arms. All was arranged and the men met at a certain place but there was one man missing named Nestle. It was then known that he was an informer and they sent an Intelligence Officer on to Hilltown and he came back with word that it was surrounded with soldiers. Then they decided to put Nestle to death. The next day he was coming from the town at the crab trees at the Moat when a man followed him and killed him with the swing of a plough in a corner of a field which is known ever since as Nestle's Corner. His body was brought that night and hid at Seery's. After a few days the soldiers and the police were seen coming and a woman that was washing clothes at the stream sat on where

Story: "Hilltown, Hilltown how can I leave you"

When the master of Hilltown House which is in Bellewstown, Co. Meath died a very strange thing happened. After his death it was said that the house was haunted so the people that were living in it asked some priests to prove it.
The priests came and were quite willing to see if the house were really haunted. They ordered the people out of it. Soon they set to work and prayed for some time. One priest perspired so much that he had to change his shirt seven times. This priest died shortly after.
Another priest went over to the hearth and let three shouts. Then the master came up in the shape of a devil. The priest asked "Where were you when I let the first shout"?. "In hell" he answered. "Where were you when I let the second one"?. "Coming up". "And when I let the third one" "My head was up.". Then the priest said "Go back down to hell", but the devil said, "No, not until you let me bring my cat down with me".
Still the devil would not go down. He said

This is a true story. I have heard my Father and Mother the Lord have mercy on them, telling it about ten times.
Boylan of Hilltown was a captain in the English Army about forty years ago. His generations before him lived there. It is situated on the top of Bellewstown, in the Parish of Duleek Co. Meath. If you travelled Ireland you could not find a nicer spot than Hilltown.
Captain Boylan's Father's Father was in the Dan O'Connell movement. My Father was at the three meetings on the Hill of Tara. The first meeting was held on the 15th August 1843. Captain Boylan's Grandfather was the Chairman at the three meetings. The following was there Dan O'Connell, Dr. Cantwell and other

In Boylamh of Hilltown there was a prize cow that the Boylamh thought the world of. The cow was after calving and she lay down and could not get up. Boylam sent his herd over to this man, this cow-doctor "Caudie McGuire" (the same man who made the pudding while his mother was at mass) It was ten miles of ground (with a good trotting pony) from Boylam's to Walterstown, and would do the journey in 2 hours with the pony. When they were going through Duleek, "Caudy" told the herd that it would be better for him to get the medicine that was wanted in Hickeys. The herd had asked him what medicine was wanted. "He said, a half gallon of ale, two pounds of sugar, 2d worth of ground ginger, 1 lb. of corks and a half pint of whiskey." When the herd was getting all these, the "Caudie" filled a matchbox full of ashes from Hickey's fire and put it in his own pocket. When they were travelling along, he asked the herd, if there was any out-house in which he could warm the medicine quickly. The herd said there was a harness-room and that it would do for the purpose. When they went into the yard at Hilltown they unyoked the pony, and the herd said "will you come over to see the cow now." "Caudie" said "no, not until I have the dose ready" "Go over" he said, "and cover her with a few sacks" The Caudie then went to light the fire, for it was out.

Many years ago there lived in the neighbourhood in of Hilltown an old man named Mac Cann.
Every night when he went to bed he used to dream. One night however, he dreamt of a pot of gold which was hidden under a rock on the western side of the fairies fort of Hilltown. On the following night he had a similar dream, and again on the third he dreamt of the same thing.
When he arose on third morning he started off for the fort and began to dig. He had been digging for a long time when he thought he struck metal and sure enough he did. Then he took away all the clay and lifted up the pot of gold. He then brought home his pot of gold and from that day until the day he died he was happy. It is said that a few years before, he did some good turn to the fairies and that was the reason he found the pot-full of gold.

There are many stories told by the old people of some strong deed a person did some time. There is a story told of a man who lived in HIlltown, Castlepollard, Co Westmeath, whose name was Jim Farrelly.
This man was working in a mill which was situated in Hilltown, Castlepollard, Co Westmeath. Jim Farrelly was always bringing int oats to the owners and bringing out the meal.
One day there was an amount of oats after been changed into meal. The weight of the meal was forty-three stone which is five hundredweight and three stone. Jim Farrelly carried this and lift it into the owner's cart.